Mark di Suvero
United States, born 1933Shang
1984–85
Steel
Loan courtesy of the artist and the Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan

1. Mark di Suvero

Born in Shanghai, China, to parents of Italian heritage, Mark di Suvero
moved to the United States in 1941 and began creating large-scale sculptures in the early 1960s. Like many of di Suvero’s pieces, Shang is a kinetic sculpture that features a suspended platform that swings, an indication of his interest in the technical engineering of his large-scale sculptures. The overall form of the sculpture is reminiscent of a large abstracted Asian character, or perhaps the entrance to a Japanese Shinto temple. Its title refers to the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE) and serves as a tribute to the country of his birth, while at the same time speaking to China’s dramatic increase in the consumption of steel in recent years.